In m,
Ralph Mowery typed:
"Mike Reed" wrote in message
...
On Mar 7, 8:30 am, Mike Reed wrote:
On Mar 6, 4:50 pm, Dean Hoffman
wrote:
Well, I guess it can't be a bad breaker if the hot is hot
working...
So I have an open neutral probably?
I'm starting to suspect a modification made about two
montsh ago to accommodate our new double ovens. We had 240
going into the box for the oven, with one hot 240. The
new oven required a 4-wire connection with two 120V hots.
The electrician used the oven circuit's ground for the
neutral, the neutral for the 2nd 120, and borrowed ground
from an adjacent 120V GFI receptacle. I think something's
hokey with that arrangement or its implementation.
Strange this all started when I turned on the vac (which
had worked fine on that circuit since the oven went in).
The new oven could have been wired the same as the old one.
Just use 3 wires. While it will work ok electrically, the
'borrowed' ground wire may not be heavy enough to carry a
short circuit current, especially if the short is not a
100% short, but a low to medium resistance short. That
could result in the 'borrowed' ground wire getting too hot
over a long period of time. Probably the borrowed ground
wire is 14 gauge and the wires going to the stove are much
larger.
That setup sounds fishy; not to code and not smart to have, IMO. Needs to
be checked out by someone with experience IMO, preferably licensed
electrician. In a N.A. 240Vac ckt, there should be NO current in the
Neutral; it's all in the two 120 lines. The earth of course needs to always
be there with a 4-wire connected stove. A "borrowed" ground isn't right any
way you look at it, assuming it means earth ground. They should never be of
different breakers until they get all the way back to the breaker box.
This is for dryers, but it might help understand things:
http://repair2000.com/cord.html
Lots of info online if one looks.
HTH,
Twayne`
-
--
Newsgroups are great places to get assistance.
But always verify important information with
other sources to be certain you have a clear
understanding of it and that it is accurate.